Book Review: The Chiru of High Tibet, Story of the Tibetan Antelope by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Scientists describe chiru -- whose Linnaean taxonomy honors British naturalist and surgeon Clarke Abel's (September 5, 1789 - November 24, 1826) Nepali specimen examinations in 1826 -- as having: 

• big eyes; 
• dark noses; 
• fawn to red-brown bodies; 
• short-pointed, wide-spaced ears; and 
• white bellies. 

They expect ten-year life cycles and natural histories of: 

• mobility 15 minutes after birth; and 
• physical and sexual maturity at 15 and 24 to 36 months. 

They find for adult females and males: 

• shoulder heights of 29 (73.66) and 33 inches (83.82 centimeters); 
• tails 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) long; and 
• weights of 57 (25.85) and 86 pounds (39.01 kilograms).

Males -- whose legs are black-striped -- gain independence once horns emerge at 12 months.

Chiru horns -- which mature within 2.5 years to blackened, ring-ridged, smooth-tipped vertical growths of 21 to 24 inches (53.34 to 60.96 centimeters) -- have healing properties in nomadic folklore. The world's costliest, finest, warmest wool is woven into shahtoosh (king of wools) shawls from both the female's and male's coarse, long, guard hairs and short-fibered, silky undercoats. Trophy horns and wool coats in fact join body parts for traditional medicine as reasons why hunters find killing chiru lucrative. Scientists know that such uncontrolled kills are responsible for chiru populations declining from 1,000,000 around 1900 to 74,000+ around 2000.

Critical endangerment inexorably leads to extinction without:

• environmental education;
• financial support;
• habitat sustainability;
• legislative action; and
• scientific research. 

Two events maximize sustainability: 

• Conrad Anker's, Jimmy Chin's, Rick Ridgeway's, and Galen Rowell's 16-day, 275-mile (442.57-kilometer) trek pulling four aluminum 250-pound (113.39-kilogram) carts northward into Kunlun Mountain calving grounds beyond the Gorge of Despair; and
• Dr. George B. Schaller's activism for Chang Tang Nature Reserve. 

Chinese-built railways contrastingly nudge counter-sustainability. Thirty-three animal migration passages built beneath the railway offer access to chiru homelands.

Since 2010, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children's The Chiru of High Tibet provides kindergarteners to third-graders aged 4 to 8 culturally enriching, educationally entertaining insights into four mountaineers, one scientist, and 74,000+ chiru, through: 

• Stephanie Cooper's mapmaking; 
• Jacqueline Briggs Martin's writing; and 
• Galen Rowell's and Kay Schaller's picture-taking; and
• Linda S. Wingerter's acrylic illustrating. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Geographic distribution of chiru (Pantholops hodgsonii)
map (via Natural Earth) and distribution (via IUCN) data compiled by Rbrausse: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pantholops_hodgsonii_distribution.png

The Chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni)
illustration by Joseph Wolf (January 21, 1820 – April 20, 1899); lithography by Joseph Smit (July 18, 1836 – November 4, 1929); printing by Hanhart
Philip Sclater and Oldfield Thomas, The Book of Antelopes, Vol. III (1897-98), Pl. L, opposite page 45: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42167679

Unlike sheep, chiru cannot be sheared. So they are killed for their wool, which is woven into the luxury fabric shahtoosh.
Mumbai's Navarang Exports and Cocoon North America pled guilty July 7, 2000, in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, for shahtoosh smuggling, in violation of ESA (Endangered Species Act) and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).
Between September 1994 and March 1995, 308 shahtoosh shawls (from over 1,000 chirus) were smuggled for sale in U.S. and France.: LaVonda Walton/US Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:ShahtooshShawl-USFWS.jpg

Dr. George Schaller gives lecture at Beijing Zoo, August 10, 2005.
He holds a wireless device that is to be attached to a chiru's neck.
Xicheng District, central Beijing, northeastern China: Smartneddy, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Schaller.jpg

"Head of chiru antelope, the unicorn of Tibet"
sketch by H.H. (Henry Hamilton) Maxwell (March 3, 1824-May 28, 1892) of Bengal Artillery from a pair brought to Dorjiling (Darjeeling), West Bengal, northeastern India
(Sir) Joseph Dalton Hooker, Himalayan Journals, Vol. II (1854), page 158: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39797492

Chiru: Tibetan antelope in a snow storm
Tibet; 2009: Ven. S. Dhammika, CC BY SA 3.0, via PhotoDharma.net @ https://www.photodharma.net/Guests/Dhammika-Himalayas/Dhammika-Himalayas.htm

Blanford, William Thomas. 1879. Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission: Based Upon the Collections and Notes of the Late Ferdinand Stolickza, PhD: Mammalia. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45050871 

Colacello, Bob. "O.K., Lady, Drop the Shawl." Vanity Fair. June 28, 2011.

• Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1999/11/shahtoosh-furs-199911

Hooker, Joseph Dalton (Sir). 1854. Himalayan Journals; or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc. With Maps and Illustrations. In two volumes. Vol. II. London: John Murray.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39797367

Hunter, Sir William Wilson. 1896. Life of Brian Houghton Hodgson, British Resident at the Court of Nepal, Member of the Institute of France; Fellow of the Royal Society; A Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society, etc. London: John Murray.

• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/lifeofbrianhough00hunt

Ingersoll, Ernest. 1906. The Life of Animals: The Mammals. With fifteen full-page color plates and many other illustrations. New York: The Macmillan Company.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39641749

Lowther, Jason; Dee Cook; and Martin Roberts. "US Case Studies: Navarang Exports -- Shahtoosh shawls." Pages 36-37. Crime and Punishment in the Wildlife Trade. A WWF / Traffic Report. Godalming UK: WWF-UK, May 8, 2002.

• Available at: https://www.academia.edu/8000252/Crime_and_Punishment_in_the_Wildlife_Trade

Martin, Jacqueline Briggs. 2010. The Chiru of High Tibet: a True Story. Illustrated by Linda S. Wingerter. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. 

Sclater, Philip Lutley, and Oldfield Thomas. 1897 - 1898. The Book of Antelopes. In four volumes (1894 - 1900). Vol. III. London: R.H. Porter.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42167622

TNN. "Mumbai firm to be sentenced in US." The Times of India > News > World News. January 7, 2001.

• Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mumbai-firm-to-be-sentenced-in-us/articleshow/26857213.cms

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade." Pages 48-49. Regional Highlights: Region Five. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Law Enforcement Annual Report FY 2001.

• Available at: https://www.fws.gov/media/annual-report-2001-report

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Combating Illegal Wildlife Trade." Pages 58-60. Regional Highlights: Region Five. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Law Enforcement Annual Report FY 2000.

• Available at: https://www.fws.gov/media/annual-report-2000-reportpdf